Reed & Whitehouse Criticize Trump’s Brazen Shakedown Demand for DOJ to Pay Him $230 Million for Past Cases

WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee that oversees the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and Sheldon Whitehouse, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, criticized President Donald Trump for pursuing a $230 million payout from DOJ using American taxpayer money. Trump reportedly wants 'restitution' for DOJ's past investigations into his conduct.

The New York Times reported that President Trump has submitted complaints through an administrative claims process, about criminal investigations into his actions over the past several years for which he feels entitled to compensation.

Some of Trump's former personal attorneys, who are now heading up the Department of Justice, are in key positions to decide whether or not to grant their former boss and current employer the taxpayer money he wants. However, President Trump claims that he himself would make the final determination of whether he ultimately takes the massive payout from taxpayers, which may not even be publicly disclosed when it's made.

Senator Reed stated: "This is a sickening brand of cash-grab corruption that should have no place in our democracy. President Trump has zero evidence that these investigations were launched improperly and yet he claims he alone is positioned to decide whether he can just take a quarter of a billion dollars from taxpayers and not even inform the public. No president or any elected official should line their pockets with a corrupt DOJ payout like this."

Senator Whitehouse stated: "The President has proposed looting $230 million directly from American taxpayers. Presented with this proposed public embezzlement by President Trump, his former defense attorneys who now run the Department of Justice pledged to 'follow the guidance of career ethics officials,' curiously omitting that they've fired those same career ethics officials. It's a cesspool of corruption with no equivalence in American history."

The Senators urged President Trump to drop the unethical claims and said that any DOJ officials involved in the cases should recuse themselves from such a blatant conflict of interest.

The complaints were filed as an administrative claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act - a first step to see whether a settlement is possible before someone can sue for damages. The New York Times published a follow up story today noting: "The Federal Tort Claims Act, the law the president invoked to try to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars, is ordinarily a legal labyrinth that few can navigate." It also noted: "The difference between the experience of one ordinary citizen who says he was wrongly caught up in Mr. Trump's immigration dragnet, and that of the government's most powerful official, underscores the ethical conflicts and unfairness inherent in Mr. Trump's situation, legal experts said."

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